Confirmed (Almost): Dell Working on Smartphone

The rumors are true. Dell is indeed planning on entering the competitive smartphone market.

Wall Street Journal just broke the news this afternoon that Dell “has had a group of engineers working on the phones for more than a year from an office in the Chicago area.”

They produced prototypes built on Google Inc.’s Android operating system and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile software.

Android and Windows Mobile would certainly be the most likely candidates anyway, so there really is no surprise there. It will be interesting to see which OS Dell chooses after all is said and done.

Dell has not committed themselves to launching a smartphone yet and may abandon their efforts anytime. But, according to WSJ, Michael Dell has been looking into a smartphone opportunity ever since his return in 2007.

Also, according to WSJ, Dell smartphone development team spent much of last year meeting with suppliers of phone components, several phone software companies, and Asian manufacturers of phones.

Other evidence of a possible smartphone venture was brought up when Dell bought Zing, which was working on technology to move content like music and movies between mobile devices and PCs. Dell has also brought some mobile execs over from Motorola.

Wall Street Journal certainly has a good history of making accurate predictions, so we are more apt to believe these confirmations.

Of course, we will continue to update you as we receive more information. What do you think? Please leave a comment. If they do make a smartphone, which OS should Dell use?

Update: We also just found an article published around the same time from AlleyInsider, which claims that Dell is thinking of releasing the device on September 9 — 9/9/09 — and is planning on calling this mysterious phone the “MePhone”. Sound familiar?